Why ESSAOUIRA MOROCCO is a Bucket List Destination

0:01 | [Music] Welcome to Essaouira a stunning coastal
city on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast known for its

0:08 | laidback Vibe and cool sea breezes unlike the
bustling energy of Marrakesh only a few hours

0:16 | away Essaouira offers a quieter more relaxed
atmosphere making it a favorite Seaside Escape

0:22 | for tourists and locals alike Essaouira has it
all whether you come for the beaches the history

0:30 | the seafood or the culture there’s something for
everyone we’re Chris and Lydia come exploring

0:38 | Essaouira with us [Music] today if you missed
our last episode we took on the bustling city

0:47 | of Marrakesh packing in as many of the sights
as we could and a bit of shopping into our short

0:54 | visit good morning this is our last morning
in Marrakesh we’re off to Essaouira today

1:00 | and uh we may have done a bit of shopping
cuz this bag wasn’t here before we got to

1:07 | Marrakesh now we have to take this with us
on our way but uh we’re off to the seaside to

1:14 | see what that has in the store looking forward
to some seafood apparently the seafood’s very good in Essaouira and we’re about to make
our way down there now [Music] [Applause]

1:45 | [Music]

1:51 | Today’s drive takes us almost
in a straight line to the coast from the Imperial City of Marrakesh
to the seaside Port Town of [Music]

1:59 | Essaouira we have made it to the Atlantic
Ocean welcome to Essaouira [Music]

2:58 | that must be where we’re staying up there

3:19 | [Music] a little fireplace lovely bed

3:31 | [Music] let’s look at this bathroom
toilet big [Music] Basin giant bath

3:41 | look at how big that bath is
my goodness that’s going to it’s almost a swimming pool it’s going
to take half the ocean to fill [Music]

3:54 | that ooh this is a bit of a chili out area with a

4:01 | [Music] barbecue what’s it like

4:09 | upstairs view that’s the ocean over [Music]

4:25 | there bit windy

4:34 | oh there’s the ocean our Riad accommodation is perfectly
situated within Essaouira’s old Medina a

4:45 | UNESCO heritage site No sooner had we settled
in than we headed straight back out excited

4:51 | to dive into the local scene and sample
some of the fresh seafood Essaouira is famous for more slippers we’ve already
got slippers honey don’t need any more

6:04 | [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Essaouira is also a bit of a hippie joint
got some music and uh buskers and whatnot

6:09 | so I think tonight we might try to find
a rooftop bar watch the sunset and um

6:16 | find some music maybe a band or be nice
sounds like a good plan to me [Music]

6:34 | Essaouira is famous for its
spectacular sunsets over the Atlantic Ocean the shifting colors of
the sky as the sun sets are amazing

7:00 | I spend most of my time viewing what I want from the outside
I comb it over like it’s the scene of a

7:17 | cry the only guil I find

7:29 | staring back at me in the
mirror at night stuck in place

7:37 | [Music] just After a lovely breakfast
with freshly squeezed orange juice on

7:46 | the rooftop of our rad it was time to hit
the streets of Essaouira Essaouira is a

7:52 | port town so there’s lots of fishing there’s
beaches Medina only dates back to the 18th

7:59 | Century so it’s a much more modern and
well-designed Medina here than it was uh

8:07 | in uh Fez or in Marrakesh it’s pretty windy here
actually so the wind is really blowing through

8:14 | these little alleyways so got our jumpers
on today uh and we’ll go exploring [Music]

8:29 | It wasn’t yet 10:00 a.m. so the Medina hadn’t
come to life yet Essaouira’s Medina is uniquely

8:36 | easy to navigate thanks to its design by
a French architect the streets are laid

8:41 | out in a grid pattern unlike the maze-like
medinas of Fez and Marrakesh which evolved

8:47 | more organically over centuries it’s
a pretty Medina with its whitewashed

8:52 | buildings and Blue Shutters lending a
distinct Mediterranean flavor [Music]

9:01 | look at the brick work on this door so this is the
ancient form of air conditioning it’s designed on

9:08 | an angle so that it pushes the wind inside the
doors so you can see how this one juts out this

9:14 | way got one slanted one way on one side and then
slanted the other on the other side to direct the

9:23 | air flow through the door very clever in ancient
times Essaouira began as a Berber settlement but

9:33 | it became a prominent trading Hub after the
Portuguese built a fortress here in the early 16th century calling it Mogador the town as we
know it today however was established in the

9:45 | 18th century by Sultan Muhammad III his vision
was to create a port as close as possible to

9:52 | Marrakech allowing him to trade goods arriving
along the trans Saharan Caravan route from

9:57 | Timbuktu and ship them to Europe the iconic
Essaouira ramparts were also built by Sultan

10:04 | Muhammad III in the 18th century to protect the
city from Naval attacks they’re known locally

10:11 | as Skala de la Kasbah and are lined with old
bronze cannons originally cast in Spain the

10:18 | ramparts offer sweeping views of the Atlantic
Ocean and are a photographers dream [Music]

10:47 | there peekaboo

10:59 | [Music] We’ve had had beautiful weather been so
spoiled for the weather we have um been

11:05 | just Picture Perfect literally Picture Perfect almost every day every time you take
a picture the weather’s just blue sky

11:12 | gorgeous wow wide Beach it’s quite a wide Beach

11:19 | it is a wide Beach [Music] that’s
it’s quite a long beach too [Music]

11:33 | oh there’s a hammock that’s the way you
want to spend your day they’re just getting

11:39 | set up now look like what’s the time it’s
about [Music] 11:00 oh look at these day

11:47 | [Music] beds time for a nous nous by the [Music]

12:12 | beach it’s warm [Music]

12:32 | I thought it was going to be ice cold cuz he said
the Atlantic’s really cold yeah is supposed to be

12:38 | cold it’s nice it’s quite nice I don’t mind it
at all no I’d almost get in for a swim which

12:43 | is saying something well on yeah maybe later in
the day the wind just keeps it cooler if the wind

12:52 | wasn’t here just in sitting in the sun when
you’re out of the wind it’s really quite warm the water’s nice yeah it’s just the wind if you
got out wet you’d be freezing yeah it’s [Music]

13:06 | nice there’s the old uh fishing trawlers out
there all high and dry at the moment we saw

13:16 | some camels walking along the beach when we were
driving in the other day I think they come out in

13:22 | the afternoon for the sunset it’s not camel time
yet but there’s plenty people Parasaing there that

13:31 | you can do Parasailing see people Paras ailing out
there not parasailing what do you call that where

13:38 | they’ve got a kite kite surfing kite surfing you
can rent a little um banana chair sit and enjoy

13:46 | the sun soccer or something going on oh yeah
it’s the kids have got their different color

13:53 | shirts are having a game of soccer on the sand
I suppose it’s a good time with the tide so low

14:19 | [Music] can you smell the fish

14:26 | While Essaouira was a major port in the 18th
and 19th centuries its importance declined as

14:31 | the Caravan trade faded today it serves mainly
as a fishing and tourism Hub drawing visitors

14:38 | to its bustling Fish Market traditional
blue fishing boats and picturesque Coastal

14:43 | [Music] setting so we’ve come to a bit of a hidden
secret that’s known to the locals and it’s a local

14:55 | um seafood market so you go along this is where
all the fishermen catch their fish and bring in their fish and they go out to Sea and they come
back in and they offload here and then they have

15:05 | um some other people come and collect their fish
off them and then they cut it and fillet it how you like and there’s a couple of little stores
here where you can come and eat fresh oysters

15:15 | freshly shucked sea urchins uh Alaskan crab and
a few other little Delicacies so we’ll have a

15:23 | look and see what there is but uh it’s a bit of a
secret so you’ll see more Moroccans than you will

15:30 | see tourist here let’s have a look [Music] it’s
just a sea of blue boats apparently they paint

16:04 | their boats blue so that the fish don’t see them
so when the fish look up all they see is the blue

16:10 | of the sky seems to work for them so maybe we
should all paint our fishing boats blue [Music]

16:49 | here is sea urchin like Hedgehog
of the sea clams oysters

17:21 | was it oh really fresh they’re big

17:29 | Oysters too you going to try one of those
little Urchiny things you got to try one of

17:35 | them good chewy sea snail sea snail
maybe I’ll have a crab leg quite nice

17:53 | actually yeah I’ll have a crab leg [Music] this is

18:00 | great that’s good oh there’s a
lot of crab meat in there oh yeah

18:10 | um straight off the trawler cracked opening out the back
it’s good fresh you can’t even talk

18:30 | [Music] these guys are shucking the oysters cracking the

18:35 | crabs what are those things that’s
is that octopus okay sea urchins sea

18:43 | snails all right I’ve got a sea urchin let’s let’s zoom in a bit okay okay
that’s what it looks like what does it

18:58 | taste like I’ve never had a sea urchin
before you eat the orange bits in the [Music] inside what’s it taste like Fruity Fruity

19:11 | Fruity and a little salty yeah yeah nice that’s nice I’ll
take your word for it surprisingly you

19:26 | never going try it try a little bit no I’m good another one good so that was a female
so you have the female with wine don’t

19:36 | you this is a male one it’s not
as orange okay and you have that

19:47 | without wine wonder why you have one
taste different than the other [Music]

20:00 | it hasn’t got as stronger a flavor

20:06 | nice you have another one going back for more
try a little bit just to taste it then you can

20:17 | say you have it’s not too bad I don’t need to
say that I have no no no no just a little bit

20:23 | [ __ ] I

20:30 | I think I like the females better of course
they’re better at everything it tastes

20:37 | better you don’t get a whole lot out of it though

20:42 | no the clam oh that’s a lot of
meat in there that’s a lot of

20:49 | meat how is it not as not my
favorite I prefer oysters to

20:58 | clams for sure it didn’t have much of a
taste initially but the after taste no

21:07 | not as big a fan oysters oysters are
the way to go you won’t need lunch

21:14 | [Music]

21:20 | honey see that octopus and anchovy
ceviche what’s that that’s raw isn’t

21:30 | it it’s all raw anyway they’re just
opening it up taking it straight off the trawlers opening it up and feeding it
to [Music] us okay octpus and anchovies

21:43 | together good yeah that’s the bomb that’s the
good one yeah and the anchovies they’re not

21:59 | like anchovies that we have in pizzas back
home the tin stuff these ones are really

22:05 | tasty not as salty but um I wish you could
I wish you would try this one this is yummy

22:28 | [Music]

22:39 | [Music]

22:53 | it’s listing to one side look

22:59 | oh it’s coming in [Music] here yeah they’re winching it
up look at that winch they must have

23:18 | had a good catch they’re all
congratulating each other big payday it’s all listing to the
left the boats they must have a big

23:29 | catch they must be little sardines or something or
anchovies maybe cuz there’s been anchovies on the

23:38 | menu oh that’s a lot of fish all the fish are falling
on the ground as they come up

24:10 | [Applause] so behind me here you can see people sitting
down having something to eat so they’ve chosen

24:16 | their fish from the mongers on the side here
and then you let them know how you’d like it to be cooked and then they cook it you can
have it grilled in alfoil and then they’ll

24:26 | bring it over to you and you sit down and
you eat it fresh doesn’t get any fresher than that no straight off the boat into your
belly that’s a big one for 80Dirham yes buy

24:39 | that so the nice fellow is cleaning up our
octopus for us and then we will take it to

24:53 | the the guy with the barbecue and he’ll char
grill it for us and then we can have some then

25:00 | we can have some fresh lunch I might stand
out of the firing line yes yeah hopefully

25:06 | I don’t want to smell like our lunch I don’t
want any fingers in my octopus either [Music]

25:11 | so [Music]

26:03 | freshly caught freshly cooked chargrilled to

26:08 | [Music] perfection how is it good juicy [Music]
chewy it’s not easy to talk when you’ve

26:26 | got such a big bit of calamari
in your mouth it is very chewy

27:06 | [Music]

27:47 | [Music] by mid-afternoon the Medina had come alive
yet it was still far less hectic than those

27:52 | in Morocco’s larger cities there were no
pushy vendors or Hustlers just a relaxed

27:58 | friendly atmosphere that felt more like
a small local Town than a tourist hub

28:28 | [Music]

28:58 | [Music] [Music]

29:04 | [Music] [Music]

29:11 | I definitely need more practice if I’m ever
going to play traditional Gnawa music Gnawa

29:17 | has a strong presence in Essaouira’s
nighlife with several cafes and bars regularly featuring Gnawa musicians maybe
we’ll catch a live performance tonight

29:31 | we are walking through the streets of
Essaouira with the most beautiful human being in in Morocco and very very nice
meeting Ilyas oh thank you so much from

29:42 | the bottom of my heart and the tips of my toes
very honored to meet you as well and to show

29:48 | you around Essaouira we’ve been the luckiest the
best guide in Morocco really happy to hear that

29:58 | [Music]

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30:23 | [Music]

30:36 | [Music]

30:48 | [Music]

31:01 | Hey Chris

31:32 | [Applause]

31:57 | [Music]

32:05 | [Music]

32:13 | [Music]

32:22 | all right boys [Applause]

32:30 | thanks for joining us in the beautiful
city of Essaouira this spot is a must for your travel bucket list if you
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